The Saint in Europe (and the US)

Simon Templar, aka “The Saint”, the character created in 1928 by Leslie Charteris (British author Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, 1907-1983) soon became immensely popular. His adventures were published by Hodder & Stoughton, under the famous yellow jackets. They spread to continental Europe in the early thirties. They were so popular in France at the time, that translations were not enough. To meet the demand of the public, apocryphal stories of “Le Saint” were written directly in French (by translators Edmond and Madeleine Michel- Tyl ) . After the war his popularity would be supported by film and television adaptations. Again, there would be in France, alongside the official, international production, domestic films with the Saint played by famous French actors : Félix Marten (in Le Saint mène la danse by Jacques Nahum, 1959 ) and Jean Marais ( Le Saint prend l’affût, Christian-Jaque, 1966).

The following images show The Saint’s circulation abroad, in European and American editions.